What's In And Out At Fox

TV BEAT

HOLLYWOOD -- ``The Family Guy'' and ``Celebrity Boxing'' may well return to Fox, but ``When Animals Attack'' will not, network entertainment chief Gail Berman said in response to questions Friday.

Presenting a slate of shows that will further reflect the network's year-round strategy that began with the summer start of ``The O.C.'' and December debut of ``The Simple Life,'' Berman said networks must present quality programming all year, not just the traditional September-May season.

There are talks about how to proceed with a ``Simple Life'' sequel, Berman said, but she agreed that a second ``Joe Millionaire'' had been a mistake. ``It was the kind of idea you do once,'' Berman said. ``But at a 40 share, it was pretty temping to take another shot at it.''

``Forever Eden,'' among the new series on Fox, is being billed as ``the first open-ended unscripted soap opera,'' where contestants, if they are able, can stay indefinitely at a luxurious tropical resort. It begins March 1.

The mid-season drama ``Wonderfalls'' about a young woman who can hear inanimate objects is scheduled for Fridays starting March 12 at 9 p.m. to take advantage of audiences gathered at 8 for another network's show about a young woman who hears from God, ``Joan of Arcadia.''

``It's a challenging time period,'' Berman said of the Friday 9 p.m. slot, from which ``Boston Public'' will take a hiatus. But she thinks the ``Joan of Arcadia'' viewers may find ``Wonderfalls.'' ``Those viewers are around," she said. ``That's clear from Joan's numbers.''

Coming series in the summer include the unscripted ``The Casino,'' showing the behind-the-scenes drama of the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas, and the scripted drama ``The Jury,'' co-produced by Barry Levinson.

Of its longer-running shows, ``Malcolm in the Middle'' marks its 100th episode Feb. 22, and ``Cops'' marks its 550th episode Feb. 7.

The success of the animated series ``The Family Guy'' in Cartoon Network reruns and DVD boxed set sales has begun a discussion over whether to bring back the show for new episodes, said Berman, who added that her son is one of those doing the urging.

As for ``Celebrity Boxing,'' she was soliciting ideas for interesting cards.

A Little (Less) Time Together

Carol Burnett says she wouldn't mind going back to do Broadway, "but I would prefer only doing matinees. I want to have a life, you know. It's really hard to do eight shows a week on Broadway.''

Speaking to TV critics last week on the occasion of a 48-hour marathon of her variety show ``Carol Burnett and Friends'' on TVLand this weekend, she says she does have a current project in musical theater. ``I'm in the middle of preparing to do `Once Upon a Mattress' for ABC, only this time I'm co-producing and playing the evil queen.''

A ``Carol Burnett'' marathon starts today at 6 a.m. on TVLand.

Do-Over On Hepburn Classic

Remaking ``The Lion in Winter,'' the 1968 classic that starred Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, has been no easy task for Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart.

``It was daunting,'' says Close, a Greenwich resident who is doing the remake with Stewart for Showtime.

``I don't want to step in a role that was so wonderfully played by Katharine Hepburn. Yet I really believe in the chemistry that we all have had together, and I think here are aspects of this, of this movie, that actually reveal the material in a way that didn't happen in the original movie.''

Stewart, the actor still best known for his role as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on ``Star Trek Enterprise,'' was more intimidated than Close by the earlier film.

``Peter O'Toole has been, for all of my career, especially when I was young, a hero, an idol of mine,'' Stewart told TV critics. ``I was scared of watching in that I would be so impregnated by that very idiosyncratic manner and style, which I adored so much, so I stayed away from it.''

Close said she did, too, but peeked in when others on the film were screening it. ``The thing that I took away is Hepburn's tempos were very, very slow, and if anything, I tend to be too fast. So by being reminded of her tempo, I then probably came to a kind of nice thing in between. But I found it extremely helpful.''